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Diary entry by Doreen Patricia Ferry
He lay there so quiet. Any moment he would open his expressive
eyes, make some dry comment and chuckle. He'd ask, "Why am I dressed in
my best gear?" "Dad will get annoyed if he sees me wearing our
favourite sweater" "I didn't get a chance to put it back before he
returned from his trip" "What's the occasion that I finally get to wear
my new, grey, wool, long pants?" We must look our best before
descending into the deep, dark earth.
Mortician's are incredible, skilful magicians. They smooth away deep
etched lines of torment and agony. The dearly departed are turned into
caricatures. They are powdered and poofed. The autopsy scars are
cunningly hidden. We are able to part with them easier; thankful that
the horror is over for both of us. Relief floods over me when I see how
beautiful they made him.
The same was done to me. My heart incised; my brain detached. My sanity
and reason drained out like his blood. I am an empty shell. Only they
forgot to bury me.
What melancholy parched the throat to thirst for such a deadly
cocktail? He looked so handsome, my thirteen year old son. Did they
remove his eyes? They seemed so small under the lids. His best feature,
incredibly, brilliantly blue. You looked into them and felt as if you'd
dived into a crystalline bottomless pool; never caring if you ever
surfaced. Perhaps I imagined their beauty. Fourteen years I searched
each face those eyes to see. An identical pair would provide the key.
Will I never find them? The doctors never asked for donor organs. No
other would see through his eyes. The poison must have contaminated
every cell. |  |

My mother reckoned that he grew too fast.
A leggy seedling stretching for the sun. Agricultural poison
effectively destroys weedy children as well.
I only had one regret. It was impossible to realise. I would have liked
to have a shin bone to carve into a pendant to wear around my neck next
to my skin. You can't destroy bone. The Maori do that don't they? I
think they do, I'm not sure now because everything gets all mixed up. I
forget stuff and get confused. Entire years have been misplaced.
He couldn't rest. Many times after holidays I lay in bed hearing
footsteps up and down the hall. As if to say "welcome back, I missed
you." But even these have stopped. I miss his ghost and feel completely
desolate.
One day, not long ago an embryo began developing. At that same moment
in the vestiges of my heart, a faint and distant pulse began to beat.
The flash of energy jumped between synapse of absent neurones. Would
she have the same dazzling, dreamy eyes that drown the soul?
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